~ One man's journey through Paranoid Schizophrenia, Mental Health, Faith and Life.

Sometimes, I surprise myself.

There are times, just every now and again you understand, when I surprise myself in a good way.

Oh trust me, there are plenty of times when I surprise myself in a not so good way. Times when perhaps I think or respond in such a way that is contrary to how I like to conduct myself or like to think. And whilst these times are disappointing, even concerning, I seem to have almost accepted them as part and parcel of who I am. That is not to say that I like them or simply accept them. Because I don’t. And yes, they still bother me.

But when I surprise myself in a good way these times do tend to have a bigger impact or be more noteworthy somehow.

And yesterday (rolling into this morning also) was one such a time. Let me explain…

My daughter Janey has flown in and is visiting with me at the moment. and one of the things that she is keen to do, whilst she is here, is to get me out of the house more. And so she was keen that we did a few road trips, hiring a car just for that purpose.

At the same time, I have been really wanting to make this visit really special. And so – knowing that there are certain things which she has never experienced in life (or things which she only experienced when very young and thus can’t really remember) – we got in the car very early yesterday morning and went on a road trip.

I hadn’t told her where we were going, just that we were going on a road trip. Which, I kind of thought was important for her to know, since I don’t drive an d thus Janey would be doing all the driving.

Off we set, bright and early in the morning and drove across Ireland – which, as most locals and visitors would know, – is particularly beautiful, stopping for an early morning coffee at New Ross.

Before heading off again on our travels. I have to tell you that I love these times in the car together. As additional to the wonderful scenery that we experience, it also gives us time to just sit and chat with little to no distractions.

Our fist main stop was at the wonderful seaside town of Dungarvan. As I wanted Janey to see a small Irish coastal castle.

Dungarvan Castle is a polygonal shell keep. An Anglo-Norman fortification founded in 1185 at the mouth of the River Colligan. ‘Shell keeps’ are fairly rare in England and Ireland alike and this one is even rarer as it is one of the few ‘Royal’ castle to be built in Ireland.

But this was, for Janey, on our road trip to be but a small taste of what was to come. As from here we drove the short 20 minute drive over to Lismore and to the much more spectacular and breath-taking Lismore Castle.

Here is a smaller pic that we took from the car as we drove up to it.

I can’t even begin to tell you the joy I got from seeing Janey’s eye’s light up when she first saw it.

It really is a very impressive building The Irish home of the Duke of Devonshire. Sadly it is not open to members of the public but can be rented out if you have the mind and wallet.budget to do so.

Suffice to say I decided not to rent the castle for the day on this particular occasion, LOL. And so, once we had viewed it, we drove on and to the destination that I had in mind for us that day.

One of the things which Janey only experienced when she was very young and thus has very little recollection or true appreciation of, was going to the zoo. And so when we drove up to the Fota Wildlife Park in Carringtwohill, County Cork and once she had realised what kind of attraction we were at, it was a real delight to see the joy on her face. And that was something which continued as we experienced her seeing all the different animals up close (only 3 or 4 feet away) and personal.

Fota Wildlife Park – which I have never been to myself before yesterday – is set in some 70 acres. And man was that one heck of a long walk. Especially when you are built as heavily as I am and with the mobility issues that I have.

But the wildlife is extremely well cared for and have ample room to roam and to have a good and healthy and also -0 from what we could see – and interesting and well-cared for life.

I have to say that I personally, am not a fan of zoos etc. Nor of keeping wild animals in captivity for that matter. But this is, as far as I could tell, a very well managed Wildlife Park with an excellent ethic when it came to animal care and offers an excellent education and presentation of over 30 mammals and 50 bird species.

But that ‘ample room to roam’ that the animals enjoy whilst being excellent for them, did mean one heck of a hike for me. And that is the part which surprised me in such a good way.

Thankfully the park also has plenty of benches and seating areas dotted about along the route. And certainly we took our time going round the path. But man did it ever take a lot out of me an d this morning I am walking like a zombie.

BUT, and this is the huge one for me, I managed it! And additionally I am not in as much pain and not struggling as much as I thought I would be today. Of course, I accept that it is still early and I realise that I usually get worse as the day progresses after such things.

But I am claiming a victory here! And I am so grateful to Janey for the encouragement and support that she is. So yes, I have pleasantly surprised myself, and I am determined to achieve even more things today as well!

Great post about a wonderful day organized by a wonderful dad. The pictures made me wish I had been with you — except for that long walk around the “lots of room to roam” zoo lol. We’d have had plenty of time to get acquainted on those benches. 🙂

FYI – your might want to check the links from The Mental Health Writers Guild to here (on your name). I believe that someone has kidnapped them somehow, leading to a site fronted by pop-ups encouraging me to click to download common software that is already updated on my computer. Only once I googled you and clicked on the link ending in “wordpress dot com”) was I taken directly here (with no popups, btw).

Thanks again, btw, for approving my blog for membership. The logo is now at the top of my sidebar, and the upcoming blog post about the Guild is in draft, with links to many pages of the Guild’s site as well as a link to Voices of Glass. Watch for pings when it posts.

It really was a very enjoyable – albeit extremely tiring – day. And the really good news is that my daughter is scheduled to fly in again soon. Although I am, not so sure that we will be having any long trips like that one this time.

The issue with the kidnapping and pop-ups is annoying I know. And trust me I have experienced it a number of times whilst rebuilding the Mental Health Writers Guild’s Member Blogs page. IT arises whenever someone (like me for example) purchases a domain name and then – due to finances, (as with me) or due to health reasons, or due to their no longer wanting to continue using that name – fails to renew it when it comes up for renewal/repayment the following year. Very often others will swoop in and buy that name in the hope of then selling it back to you at an extremely elevated cost. Something I refused pay – hence my not having that domain name anymore.

In the mean time they often use the site for advertisements – which is what you experienced.

Thankfully I have now removed all such links from the Mental Health Writers Guild’s Member Blogs listing and so that shouldn’t be an issue.

Again I really appreciate your kindness and many thanks for the post on your site. I enjoyed reading it and even left a comment 🙂

Whew! It was w-a-y past my USA bedtime when I first saw your response to my comment, so I decided to hold it until I awakened – then could not find it again in my comment scroll. It suddenly occurred to me to jump over to comment here – duh!

Glad to hear you already knew about the link nonsense – and that they are now no longer a problem. When a link takes me to a site fronted with a pop-up advert I close the window and I never download from “suggestions” that I upgrade software. I check for upgrades manually – but others may not be so cautious. and I KNEW you couldn’t possibly have time to field complaints for something that was not of your making.

BELIEVE me, I get it! When it came up for renewal at a truly lousy time, I lost an entire domain name, my website with 25 years of work, and the addcoach.com domain email address that was the only one I used since practically the dawn of the web (and certainly since the dawn of coaching!).

I was gang mugged *right* in front of my building, had to replace phone, all cards, accounts, keys etc. — with the [dominant] hand they shattered in a cast for 3 months, housebound and isolated due to snow and ice for much of that time — THEN forced to relocate suddenly (for reasons not of my making).

Money, time and focus *had* to be elsewhere. The resulting PTSD and depression took more than a bit of a toll (and money), tho’ the worst of that is finally behind me. The entire experience and recovery efforts practically wiped me out financially, however – and suddenly disappearing from the internet has negative effects still.

I refuse to pay to get it back either, even if it were in my meager budget these days – thus my wordpress.com blog.

Thanks for commenting on my article, btw. AND it has already been reblogged – more help spreading the word.
xx,
mgh

I am so sorry to hear about what happened. And trust me I totally understand about the resultant PTSD and depression. I am personally familiar with both unfortunately and yes they can take a huge amount of time to get over. (If we do at all that is – as some don’t).

The work that you are doing online (*and I am sure offline – but of course, I don’t witness that) is so valuable and so important. Don’t let the (bleeped out for good taste) get you down or defeat you. We are making a difference and the truth is that is the most important part of it all.

Until and unless Mental Health Awareness infects more of the public, we can only take on the “angels on earth” role ourselves. Not a lot of great help out there otherwise, even among some of the “professionals,” sadly. I do believe that the Mental Health blogging community makes a huge difference.

I choose to believe that God smiles down upon us – and especially on YOU for connecting us to one another and helping the public find the help and understanding they sorely need.
xx,
mgh

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